Seven months after publicly saying it was severing ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council last year, Arizona Public Service quietly renewed its membership with the conservative public policy group.

Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest energy company, told regulators Nov. 6 that its parent corporation has spent $3.7 million dollars to fight for a drastic reduction to a key rooftop solar incentive in Arizona.

WASHINGTON – Arizona is the 12th-most energy-efficient state in the nation this year, the same position the state held last year, according to rankings released Wednesday by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

An advocacy group for rooftop solar companies told Arizona utility regulators today that it has spent $336,000 fighting the state’s largest utility provider over an incentive that has led to explosive growth for the solar industry in Arizona.

As of September 30, Arizona Public Service’s parent organization had spent $9 million - more than every 2010 gubernatorial campaign combined - in the fight over Arizona’s solar incentives and deregulation of the utility market, according to the company’s most recent earnings report.

Arizona’s Residential Utility Consumer Office today recommended Arizona’s utility regulators to reduce solar “net metering” incentives by a fraction of what the state’s largest utility has sought in recent months.

Instead of cutting the monthly savings of solar net metering customers in half, or by around $75 each month, as Arizona Public Service has asked the state’s energy regulators to allow, RUCO suggested a more modest savings reduction of about $7 per solar panel user.

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Bob Burns said today he’s “troubled” by the vicious public relations war waged by Arizona’s largest utility provider and the solar industry over future rooftop solar incentives.

He wants an accounting of the money that’s been spent so far to see whether customers have been paying for the fight. If so, it could be a violation of the utility’s last rate case settlement.

The fight over Arizona’s solar industry spilled into the streets Wednesday as a group of about 40 retirees protested in front of the headquarters of Arizona Public Service, criticizing the utility for asking state regulators to reduce rooftop solar incentives.